Candidates for Eesti Laul finale now known

Over the last two weeks the number of competitors in this year's Eesti Laul has been cut in half. The ten songs that will compete to represent Estonia at the Eurovision Song Contest have now been selected.

The results were determined by 50% televoting and 50% jury voting. The jury consisted of Estonian musicians, singers, songwriters and journalists.

During each show the five songs the jury liked most were announced in random order.

In the first semi-final, Cartoon feat. Kristel Aaslaid, Kati Laev & Noorkuu, Kéa, Laura and Mick Pedaja qualified. The jury agreed with the public vote, with the exception that they favoured Würffel ahead of Kati Laev & Noorkuu.

Indrek Ventmann's song 'Hispaania tüdruk' surprisingly did not qualify despite receiving a lot of radio attention.

Unlike the semi-finals, there will be two rounds of voting in the final. The first round will be 50% jury and 50% televoting, then the final three will compete in a superfinal with only televoting to determine the winner.

Eesti Laul will now have a break for a week before the ten qualifiers face off against each other in a concert in Saku Suurhall, home of the 2002 Eurovision Song Contest.

This is the first year that Eesti Laul will be held in the venue after increased interest in the contest saw it move from Nordea Kontserdimaja.

The Eesti Laul production team will determine the order in which the acts will perform in the final.

The Final of Eesti Laul will take place in Saku Suurhall on Saturday 5 March.

Over the last two weeks the number of competitors in this year's Eesti Laul has been cut in half. The ten songs that will compete to represent Estonia at the Eurovision Song Contest have now been selected.

The music program of the eighth Tallinn Music Week (TMW), taking place from March 28 to April 3 has confirmed 237 artists from 33 countries. Finnish Flow and Tuska festivals will present their own stages at TMW.

With Eesti Laul semifinals still weeks away, one semifinalists – “Immortality” by Cartoon feat. Kristel Aaslaid – has already amassed more than one million listeners in Youtube. This is far more than any other semifinalist in the history of the competition.

The Estonian Music Awards might be a chance for the success stories of the previous year to celebrate their work, but this year's event held a number of signs of what, and who, will be big in the years to come. Though a few established artists took most of the awards on offer, they came from across the musical spectrum.

ETV's morning program "Terevisioon" revealed the four jury-picked designs and one people's choice that have made it to the final of the national logo competition. The new logo that will replace the obsolete Welcome to Estonia will be chosen in mid-March.

Jõuluvana, the Estonian version of Father Christmas, and his Russian colleague Ded Moroz met today on the Friendship Bridge in Narva that connects the two countries to exhange good wishes. The pair visited both Narva and Ivangorod, the twin towns on the opposite banks of the Narva River.

Three months ago, three students from Pirita Business High School decided to set up PU:LIPS, a student company that produces exclusive wooden neckties. The ties have already raised interest in Italy and the US, where the boys soon hope to sell their products through an e-store.

Five MEPs from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have filmed an informative tongue-in-cheek video message to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who was recently caught out answering a question about his favorite Baltic nation with "That's not a thing."